This is part of an article published on the University of Oxford website.

Cycling, e-biking or walking can help tackle the climate crisis – even if you swap the car for active transport just one day a week – according to a new study led by researchers from the University of Oxford’s Transport Studies Unit.

Emission targets are unlikely to be met without a significant move away from motorised transport, according to the researchers, and shifting to active transport could save as much as a quarter of personal CO2 emissions from transport.

Emission targets are unlikely to be met without a significant move away from motorised transport, according to the researchers, and shifting to active transport could save as much as a quarter of personal CO2 emissions from transport

Published in the journal Global Environmental Change, this is the first study of the carbon-reducing impact of city-based lifestyle changes and it reveals that increases in active mobility significantly lower carbon footprints, even in urban European contexts with a high incidence of walking and cycling.

‘By following nearly 2,000 urban dwellers over time, we found that those who switch just one trip per day from car driving to cycling reduce their carbon footprint by about 0.5 tonnes over a year, representing a substantial share of average per capita CO2 emissions,’ says the lead researcher, Oxford’s Dr Christian Brand. ‘If just 10% of the population were to change travel behaviour, the emissions savings would be around 4% of lifecycle CO2 emissions from all car travel.’

We found that those who switch just one trip per day from car driving to cycling reduce their carbon footprint by about 0.5 tonnes over a year, representing a substantial share of average per capita CO2 emissions

Dr Christian Brand

Dr Brand says, ‘Our findings suggest that, even if not all car trips could be substituted by bicycle trips, the potential for decreasing emissions is huge.’

Researchers found active travel substitutes for motorised travel – and increases in cycling, e-biking or walking over time independently lowers mobility-related lifecycle CO2 emissions. And swapping the car for a bike or e-bike for just one day a week – or going from ‘not cycling’ to ‘cycling’ – drastically lowers mobility-related lifecycle CO2.

The analysis comes as UK, and the world, enters the 2020s – what needs to be a ‘decade of action’, if global goals to limit rising temperatures are to be met. Ahead of this November’s COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, countries are expected to submit enhanced pledges to tackle emissions.

To put this into context, for the cities in this study, average per capita CO2 emissions from transport (excl. international aviation and shipping) ranged between 1.8 tonnes of CO2 per person per year in the UK to 2.7 tonnes of CO2 per person per year in Austria. According to the Global Carbon Atlas, average per capita CO2 emissions from all activities were eight tonnes per year in the UK (on a consumption basis).

Swapping the car for a bike or e-bike for just one day a week – or going from ‘not cycling’ to ‘cycling’ – drastically lowers mobility-related lifecycle CO2

Read the whole article here.